Gervais Boys Basketball Tips Off Season Wednesday At Home

GERVAIS, Ore.– As Head Coach Ben Schultz goes through the protocol of pregame, excitement is in the air for the first game of the year Wednesday evening at home versus Gaston.

For Schultz, he said that there’s a mixture of excitement and nerves for him as he comes home to Gervais for the first time in 20 years, this time as a coach instead of a player.

“Equally both, I think I’m going to throw up,” laughed Schultz. “The first game is always jittery but coming home, having the first game after not stepping on the court for 20 years competitively it’s nerve racking.

“A lot of people said that they’re going to be here, so I hope we can start off right and they’ve (the team) been working hard and I think that we’ve got a lot to go and a lot to improve, but tomorrow I think we’re going to be ok and hopefully get a win.”

From a players perspective, the excitement is there as well as the feeling feels more like Homecoming knowing there going to be opening up the season on homecourt in front of their home fans.

“I’m not nervous at all honestly,” said senior Derrick Jaramillo. “You kind of get use to it after four years and I’m really excited at start our season out at home for senior year. It’s super fun, it’s almost like football.

The Team observing what Coach Schultz is expecting of them come pregame time (Picture By Jeremy McDonald)

“It’s first game, the first game of the season. Got to start it with a bang.”

What a way to start it off but at home versus what’s going to be a senior-heavy Gaston squad. The 2A Greyhounds finished 3-19 overall and 2-14 in the Northwest League last season.

But confidence is there as the boys walk through their pregame routine that Coach Schultz paced out for them moments before that they can pull of a victory to start the season strong.

“Yeah, yeah,” smiled Jaramillo. “If we can do what we’re capable of, we should be able to get this victory no problem. But if we just fall apart, then we’ll beat ourselves, that’s the only way we’ll lose is if we beat ourselves.”

With how they’ve been practicing up to this point, they should be just fine come tip-off Wednesday night.

Tip-off is schedule for 7:30pm at Gervais High School.

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